Friday, March 23, 2007

Dressing up ... who will I be today?
People often comment on 'how good' Hannah is (for a brat with DS I presume) and in the next breath say how lucky she is to have a twin. I know that she is lucky to be a twin - it is clearly a special sibling relationship. Just tonight Kit and she had a fight over something and in making up he grabbed her and pulled her down for a cuddle so exuberant that I was worried one or both of them would knock their heads on the concrete arch in our lounge room. Then in the car this afternoon they were arguing like an old married couple. One of them wanted to hold the other's hand and they were objecting - this is a fairly common dispute and the role of handholder and 'other' changes all the time.

I know that Kit is 'good' for Hannah - she watches him and will copy what he does. I also know that Hannah is 'good' for Kit. He copies her (usually in ridiculously fun events). Yet there is a part of me that doesn't like to hear her achievements attributed to her rather bright 'typical' twin. It probably isn't intended this way but in some way I feel it diminishes HER accomplishments. Hannah IS doing well, I can't really say whether it is 'good for a child with DS' or 'good for a 'typical' child' but I can say it is GREAT for my Hannah.

One of the twin's current favourite passtines is dress ups. Very nuch a Hannah directed play activity. I have to acknowledge though that the scarves are copying ne. I like to try and disguise bad hair days with a rather obvious scarf. Still I don't turn it into a dress up gane like Hannah does SO well!




5 comments:

Em said...

People do that with G too - ie, say how lucky she is to have a big brother to teach her things. Blah, blah, blah. I think he's lucky to have a little sister to teach him that all different kinds of people exist in the world and they all have unique value.

Cate said...

I get that too, "Oh, he's the best stimulation you can have for her." Good thing we thought ahead and invested in a sibling.

Love the scarves.

Michelle said...

My mom is a twin and they have such a great relationship. I'm sure Kit and Hannah are "good" for each other in their own ways - and I would think they would be "good" for each other even if Hannah didn't have Ds (does that make sense?) Sometimes I wish Kayla had an older sibling, just for that closeness, or at least a sibling close in age.

Isn't dress up so fun!

jotcr2 said...

Things like that can bug me too (although obviously not a twin comment in Sheena's case). Maybe they mean it independently. I think she is lucky to have a twin, but far from just a developmental standpoint. just from a fun standpoint. The other kids with DS I know that a twin just seem to have so much fun together.

Christina M said...

Cute :-)
Your twins are special, but just because evry child is special. DS or not.